why? microsoft apps can do anything and everything google apps can.
plus google is among the worst company in the world anyway as they don't give a rat *** about your privacy and is available to sell all your emails, messages, addresses, numbers, and personal info for a few dollars online to advertisers for them to haunt you through eternity.
Be smart, don't use google.

I signed the petition to keep Google apps OFF windows phone. Want an advertising machine in your pocket? Buy an android

Yes and keep billions of potential customers off from ever buying a Windows Phone again. Way to root for a budding platform.
And guess what, Facebook also violates user privacy regularly. Let's petition to remove Facebook from Windows Phone. And guess what again, Facebook also owns Instagram. Let's petition to have this app never land on Windows Phone. That will REALLY drive people towards Windows Phone.

I came from iPhone, and I do miss google maps. Bing/Nokia maps are not as accurate outside of the US at least. Google maps on iPhone is actually awesome, especially for turn by turn navigation. Ah well, I still have my Google Nexus to use as a glorified navman. :) I also miss Chrome. IE10 runs better on WP8, but a lot of forums in particular give a buggy experience.

I dumped everything Google and don't miss it at all. Don't care about data mining because everybody does it, MS included. I just got tired of all these companies refusing to offer services to other platforms because its not in their interests. Or suing because a rectangle phone is somehow patented by us so you can't use it. Their a bunch of children fighting over the swing in the playground. If you are a services based company, you should want to offer your services to as many people as possible. Screw Google and screw Apple. Biggest babies on the block. 😊

I dumped everything Google and don't miss it at all. Don't care about data mining because everybody does it, MS included. I just got tired of all these companies refusing to offer services to other platforms because its not in their interests. Or suing because a rectangle phone is somehow patented by us so you can't use it. Their a bunch of children fighting over the swing in the playground. If you are a services based company, you should want to offer your services to as many people as possible. Screw Google and screw Apple. Biggest babies on the block. 

And Microsoft's droidrage and scroogle campaign? Which makes them a cry baby too?

Skype has always had the reputation of being a rather pathetic IM service, and this doesn't seem to really be changing. I actually use it quite a bit (for calling at a certain area I frequent that doesn't get reception, but has WiFi available), not sure how much use it gets from people here. It's bad, and even the Stock Google Talk app in Android runs circles around it.

Voice Call Quality is decent, but it uses almost twice as much data as Google Talk Voice Chat (which translate to significantly higher battery usage). Google Talk has better Video Chat quality. If you use Google+ Hangouts (Group Video Chat) are free. Skype Charges $9.99 a month for that ($4.99 if you pay a year up front). It doesn't have an option to Auto-Start on device boot so unless you run the app you won't get Notifications for anything - This is true on both Windows 8 and Android, and I'd assume Windows Phone 8 as well (in order to get it to run in the background, you must first start them app and then home out of it). On Android, the app is killed in record time if you disable the background notification - at least on my phone (1GB RAM). File Transfer is beyond slow and I've had files get hung up for over a day until I cancelled the transfer.

The Facebook Chat in their Desktop app is almost unserviceable. Can't send messages to Offline or Mobile friends, which makes it useless as most people use FBC from their smartphones (most people I know, at least). All their desktop clients are AdWare, and are quite... abusive... about it (close an add in the buddy list, it will pop another one up almost immediately) and their UI design leaves much to be desired. Microsoft should immediately redesign the Skype Desktop (and RT) app to look exactly like Lync, IMO. They need to give more emphasis to VoIP/IM/Video Calling than Paid Services. It puts a lot of people off.

Also, a lot of people refuse to use Skype because it puts your User Name in a world-wide directory for everyone to see.

The only reason I see to use Skype at this point is to make cheap voice calls over a data connection when reception isn't there, and that's free if you rack up some Bing Rewards and use the Points to purchase some Skype Credits, assuming you aren't a heavy user (with Rollover Minutes, Unlimited Mobile to Mobile, and Share Everything plans here in the US almost everyone has Unlimited Minutes when reception is present).

I'm not opposed to this, but I think it will be a cold day in **** before Google does it.

I've used Google docs and the rest and personally I've found Microsoft Office Web Apps to be far more capable and responsive. If you go for the paid version (Office 365) it's even better, basically like a full on cloud based version of Office. I also like SkyDrive much more than Google Drive and I have a SkyDrive app and access on every device I own including my Android tablet.

So I wouldn't mind seeing Google Apps on Windows Phone, if it will attract new users, but personally I don't use them at all. Not because I'm afraid of Google infomining me so much as I just feel the Microsoft equivalents are superior in every way that matters to me.

If you haven't tried them, I recommend giving them a shot. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I've used Google docs and the rest and personally I've found Microsoft Office Web Apps to be far more capable and responsive. If you go for the paid version (Office 365) it's even better, basically like a full on cloud based version of Office. I also like SkyDrive much more than Google Drive and I have a SkyDrive app and access on every device I own including my Android tablet.

I wholeheartedly agree, but I do have to ask.. what does Office 365 offer that Office Web apps doesn't? You can still create and open up a document in both the browser and in Office (2010 and later), and can simultaneously edit in both versions. Also, Office 2010 allows you to save a file directly to your SkyDrive for future editing/syncing. I'm genuinely curious what else Office 365 brings to the table.

I wholeheartedly agree, but I do have to ask.. what does Office 365 offer that Office Web apps doesn't? You can still create and open up a document in both the browser and in Office (2010 and later), and can simultaneously edit in both versions. Also, Office 2010 allows you to save a file directly to your SkyDrive for future editing/syncing. I'm genuinely curious what else Office 365 brings to the table.

Our company just switched to 365 and I'm wondering the same thing, lol.